Sam Side Story

I little glimpse into the world of Samuel Duffy Herlehy- uber competitor.
Young Sam, just 2 days ago, discovered that he could- in fact swin in the shallow end of the pool without his swim vest. Made him feel like quite the big shot.

So yesterday this happens:

(Scene set-up: Samuel and Baylor are eating lunch by the deep end of the pool with mom auntie and grandma. Sam has a handful of food.)
Sam: Bay, first one in the pool wins.
Sam (pointing): Hey Bay- look at that Bird in that tree!
Distraction technique works as Baylor looks away from the pool towards the fictional 'bird in the tree'
Sam shoves remaining food into mouth (he is not a waster), and jumps into the closest pool access to him- the deep end.
Sam, not wanting to get him overflowing mouth of food wet, refuses to put his face into the water, which would actually enable him to swim to the side.
Thus, Sam begins to sink.
Mom needs to jump into the pool to rescue, the uber-competitive, deceitful child.

Dad is so very proud.

Menu Review

Things to avoid from the hospital menu:

turkey sausage- no bueno.

Otherwise things are pretty good. The Very BEST food that you can get in the city comes from Tres Hombritos

They stopped by the hospital this morning to deliver some grubby grub. Here is a picture of the tres hombritos themselves.



Health wise?
Things are progressing just fine. The mouth sores are here, and the docs expect a fever in the next day or so. But the sores have not reached the point where Max is hooked up to a continuous morphine feed yet. Until he's needing 5 or 6 doses/day they won't hook him up on it. Lots of movies and time with the Wii Lego Star Wars game. I'm pretty good. People know me.

Where's Weezey?

Um.... we are definately movin' on up. Check it out.

Day 1

So this is Day 1 (Day 0 being the transplant yesterday). Max woke up chipper, but is just not feeling all that well. 2 throw ups so far, and now he's taking a nap (12:56 PM), encouraged by morphine. Jamie has left the city for the first time in the last 10 days to spend 2 nights at home with Sam and Bay. Tough for her to leave, but good for everyone that we can take time to recharge our batteries.
I plan to watch a bunch of super-hero movies with Max. Right now the X-Men triliogy is being played often. Max's favorite is #3. He likes Jugernaught. I like #2, but I really just like them all. Iron Man is here and I'm hoping to move it into the viewing rotation soon. I may also try to get the Edward Norton Hulk. We like that. Any other recomendations? How was Daredevil? I hadn't heard much good, but Max would like to see it since we play with Daredevil in the Marvel Alliance video game.
Max and I will also be tackling the Lego Star Wars game some more. Love it.
Just had someone come in and let us know that we will be moving to a bigger room. We'll move over to room 749 later today. Still get a view, but the room is bigger and actually more windows.

transplant video

here is video of the actual transplant. Not super exciting, but here it is.



PS- I edited down the video and included some footage of the docs visiting him that day, and the transplant finishing up. I try to play non-sensical word play with the head doc- but he doesn't catch on. You can hear Jamie laugh as she appreciates what I'm doing. That's why I married her. She thinks my stupidity is funny and endearing.

Big Day

So today is the big Day. Max is doing pretty good actually Sleeping right now. They got enough of the stem cells from Sam yesterday. They will start transfusing around 10 AM. I should look just like a blood transfusion. Jamie and I will be hanging out, and worrying more than we need. But what else is there to do on a day like this?
Thanks to everyone for you thoughts and prayers. This will be the start of lots of good. In about 4 weeks we plan to be home and healthy in Foresthill.

Poor Sammy

Yesterday was not one of Sam's top all timers. It turns out he is violently against having people try to make him do something he would rather not do. Like take off his pants so the doctors could access his leg for the fermeral line. Freaked out.
Or accept the sedation drugs in his IV line and go to sleep. He fought like a Bronco for over 45 minutes. 2 grown men basically holding him down. Twisting, punching, kicking, slipping out of restraints. And yellin "I want to get OUT of Here!" over and over again with the occasional "This room is Stupid" thrown in for flavor.
Then when they took out the line is was more of the same. He does not accept defeat well. I think that bodes well for future athletic endeavors.

On the positive side, he was able to contribute these wonderful stem cells from his blood, that will make Max healthy again. This is what all the fuss is about folks.